Levasseur PL.10

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The Levasseur PL.10 was a carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft developed in France in the late 1920s.Taylor 1989, 575] It was a conventional, single-bay biplane along similar lines to Levasseur's contemporary designs for the French navy, including a watertight, boat-shaped fuselage, small underwing floats, and undercarriage that could be jettisoned in flight in order to improve the changes of a successful ditching.

Thirty of these machines were purchased by the Aéronavale, entering service aboard the carrier "Béarn" in 1931 under the designation R3b. [Reconnaissance, 3 seat, "embarqué" - "shipboard"] In 1935, these were followed by thirty examples of an improved version, the PL.101, which replaced the original PL.10s in service aboard the carrier.

The PL.10 also radically revised in the PL.107 torpedo bomber prototypes of 1937. These featured a fully-enclosed cockpit that also enclosed the mounting between the fuselage and upper wing, therefore moving the fuselage higher in the interplane gap. To compensate for this, the lower wing was replaced with one of inverse gull design, and the main undercarriage units were moved to its "low points" and provided with spats. Two prototypes were evaluated and rejected by the Aéronavale. Levasseur then made one final attempt to sell the PL.10 design in the PL.108, which was generally similar to the PL.107s. This first flew on 26 September 1939, but proved no more promising than its predecessors.

Variants

* PL.10 - original version with Hispano-Suiza 12Lb engine (30 built)
* PL.101 - revised version with Hispano-Suiza 12Lb engine, wider-track undercarriage, and slight sweepback on the wings (30 built)
* PL.107 - torpedo bomber version with enclosed cockpit, new lower wing, spatted undercarriage and Gnome-Rhône 9Kfr engine (2 built)
* PL.108 - similar to PL.107, but with Hispano-Suiza 9Vbrs (1 built)

Units using this aircraft

* France
** Aéronavale
*** Escadrille 7S1

pecifications (PL.101)

aerospecs
ref=
met or eng?= met

crew=Three
capacity=
length m=9.75
length ft=32
length in=0
span m=14.20
span ft=46
span in=7
swept m=
swept ft=
swept in=
rot number=
rot dia m=
rot dia ft=
rot dia in=
dia m=
dia ft=
dia in=
width m=
width ft=
width in=
height m=3.75
height ft=12
height in=4
wing area sqm=56.8
wing area sqft=611
swept area sqm=
swept area sqft=
rot area sqm=
rot area sqft=
volume m3=
volume ft3=
aspect ratio=
wing profile=
empty weight kg=2,020
empty weight lb=4,440
gross weight kg=3,150
gross weight lb=6,930
lift kg=
lift lb=

eng1 number=1
eng1 type=Hispano-Suiza 12Lb
eng1 kw= 450
eng1 hp= 600
eng1 kn=
eng1 lbf=
eng1 kn-ab=
eng1 lbf-ab=
eng2 number=
eng2 type=
eng2 kw=
eng2 hp=
eng2 kn=
eng2 lbf=
eng2 kn-ab=
eng2 lbf-ab=

max speed kmh=220
max speed mph=140
max speed mach=
cruise speed kmh= 130
cruise speed mph= 80
stall speed kmh=
stall speed mph=
range km=600
range miles=375
endurance h=
endurance min=
ceiling m=4,500
ceiling ft=14,800
g limits=
roll rate=
glide ratio=
climb rate ms=
climb rate ftmin=
sink rate ms=
sink rate ftmin=

armament1=1 × fixed, forward-firing machine gun
armament2=1 × trainable, rearward-firing machine gun
armament3=60 kg (132 lb) bombs
armament4=
armament5=
armament6= aircontent
see also=
related=
similar aircraft=
lists=

Notes

References

*
* [http://www.aviafrance.com/8996.htm aviafrance.com]
* [http://www.airwar.ru/enc/other1/pl10.html Уголок неба]